Systems and methods are provided for optimizing the placement of RF components within an environment. The system operates by defining a spatial model associated with the environment, determining a first placement location of the RF device within the spatial model, defining a localized reference area, determining a coverage area associated with the RF device, identifying a set of gaps associated with the coverage area within the reference area, determining a second placement location of the RF device within the spatial model based on the set of gaps, and placing the AP in the second placement location within the environment.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method of positioning an RF device within an environment that contains one or more previously positioned RF devices, comprising the steps of: defining a spatial model associated with the environment; determining a first placement location of the RF device within the spatial model; determining an actual coverage area associated with the RF device and the previously positioned RF devices; defining a reference area within the environment such that the reference area is partially defined by a position of at least one of the previously positioned RF devices; identifying a first set of gaps associated with the actual coverage area within the reference area, wherein the identifying includes determining a geometrical attribute of the first set of gaps; computing a first coverage metric based on the geometrical attribute of the first set of gaps; determining a second placement location of the RF device within the spatial model based on the first set of gaps; identifying a second set of gaps associated with the actual coverage area within the reference area, wherein the identifying includes determining a geometrical attribute of the second set of gaps; computing a second coverage metric based on the geometrical attribute of the second set of gaps; and if the second coverage metric is below a predetermined threshold, placing the RF device in the second placement location.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the actual coverage area associated with the RF device includes performing an RSSI calculation.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein defining the spatial model includes determining the location of one or more barriers within the environment.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference area is rectangular.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the reference area has at least one corner corresponding to the location of the RF device.
6. A system for positioning an RF device within an environment, comprising: a processor configured to accept a spatial model associated with the environment, determine a first placement location of the RF device within the spatial model, determine an actual coverage area associated with the RF device and at least one previously positioned RF device, determine a reference area at least partially defined by a position of the at least one previously positioned RF devices, identify a geometrical attribute of a first set of gaps associated with the actual coverage area within the reference area, compute a first coverage metric based on the geometrical attribute of the first set of gaps, determine a second placement location of the RF device within the spatial model based on the first set of gaps, identify a geometrical attribute of a second set of gaps within the reference area, compute a second coverage metric based on the geometrical attribute of the second set of gaps, and determine an optimum position of the RF device based on the second coverage metric; a display for displaying the spatial model and the second placement location.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the processor is further configured to compute a coverage metric based on the area of the set of gaps.
8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the processor computes the actual coverage area associated with the RF device by performing an RSSI calculation.
9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the spatial model includes the location of one or more barriers within the environment.
10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the RF device is a wireless access point.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the wireless access point conforms to a 802.11 specification.
12. The system of claim 6 , wherein the RF devices is selected from the group consisting of a WiMax device, a Bluetooth device, a Zigbee device, a UWB device, and a RFID device.
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January 31, 2007
July 19, 2011
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